 Right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to a new day. Everyone can hear me okay? It's possible. Yes, it's possible. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's begin this time with the one of prayer. One of us, Manki, if you are available, can you please lead us in prayer? Prabhakar or Manki is available. Go ahead. Thank you, Pastor. Lord Jesus. Well, thank you this morning, Lord. We pray for that. You will be with us as we lend, open our mind, open our heart, Lord, so that we may receive what you teach us this morning, Lord. And we pray, Jesus, that you empower us, Pastor Paul, Lord, with your Holy Spirit, Lord, so that you use Him as your mouthpiece, Lord, to teach us this morning. In the mighty name of our Lord Jesus, Lord, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Manki. All right. So when we get into the next chapter, yesterday we looked at career growth, right? And we saw the importance of, you know, God wants us to grow. God wants us to grow professionally. And that's His desire. And even as we pursue career growth, it's important that we must also work hard, prepare us for career growth. All right. Let's go to chapter 19, work, life, balance. Right now, in a time where, you know, everyone are in this rat race of, you know, growing up, becoming successful businessman, entrepreneur, or, you know, just wanting to grow up the ladder. And in this chapter, we're going to learn about how we, as God's children, must maintain a balance between our professional life and our personal life. Now, this is a serious challenge, right? I've met a lot of people, you know, young people, a few of them from our church who are very, very well off, very rich parents are, you know, their own business and all of that. And a few of them came up to me, Pastor, I don't know if my father and mother even loved me. I've not spent time with my father. I don't remember when was the last time, you know, we just went out together. And this young man, he was probably about 20 years, he had enough money with him. But he was heartbroken. It looked like as if, you know, all the money was, you know, it doesn't mean anything to them. And in a time when we are at right now, people want to grow and grow and, you know, professionally we want to do so many things, which is good. But it shouldn't be in a way that we are professionally, you know, just growing and growing, but we don't, you know, we don't look after our family. So the Bible teaches us that we must maintain a balance, right? There's time for work, there's also family. And God has designed it that way, right? I can't say I have the only work. And since I'm providing food for the table, that's enough. No. And now can I say, I don't really look after my family, but I want to work. So there has to be a balance, right? So what we do in this chapter is we look at certain practical recommendations or practical ideas. What the scriptures teach us in the way that we respond to the pressures and demands of the workplace and the family, right? Now, another important thing that I've also noticed is many pastors or people in ministry, their children, they began to have this, they began to have this version towards church. I know a couple of my friends have said their fathers, their father is a pastor, right? But the whole, their whole life they've been in church, right? Every time it's church, probably, you know, this one of my friend, he has this house and next to the house is the church. So all the time you've got church people coming home, prayer requests, anything needed was for the church. Now, it is very good. He was zealous, passionate, but in that passion, he has only one son, right? He forgot that, you know, he needs to maintain a balance. And my friend keeps telling me, you know, my father was never there for any of my, you know, school events. He was never there for, from the time I could remember, maybe first standard almost, I've never seen him for anyone. He was never there for any sports day. He would send my mother for a parent teacher meeting. He was never there. He was there for the church people, but he was never there for me. And this young man, he went to trial and said, you know, just this resentment against church. He didn't have anything about against God, but he didn't like church. Now, who's thought of it? So as believers, as people who've gone, we must know the importance. Many of us may not be married yet or some of us are married with children. And it's very important to learn these things. And I thank God that, you know, God is giving us the wisdom. God has given us the word that we can learn from it, right? So let's look at a few practical recommendations for the scripture teaches us on work-life balance. First point, maintain the rhythm of worship, work and rest. Right? It's a rhythm, right? So let's read Exodus chapter 20, 8 to 10. Yes, one of us can please read that. Exodus 20, 8 to 10. Exodus 20, 8 to 10. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God. Your God, don't do any work. Thank you. Right. Thank you, everyone. So God is telling the people of Israel. Now I know that Monday, six days a week, you are working hard. You're traveling, you're setting up your tents. There's a lot of things to do. You're working, right? Now on the seventh day, do not work. Take rest. And now who's saying this? I was just saying this. So God has commanded us to worship, to work and to rest. Now what we can do is maintain a daily or a weekly example. We wake up in the morning. This is just an example, right? And you can apply it to how you would want to do it in your own lives. So you wake up in the morning, you have your own time, your personal time with God. Then you know, okay, if it's school, if you have children, you know, you got to get them ready. Prepare them for school. So again, you have to be there for them and you don't have to drop them in school. Then you go to your office, finish your work, pick up your children, come back home. And then you get set aside time. You know that you work the whole day. You can probably spend time with your children and then later on take rest. And so you can set up a certain rhythm. Okay, this is how I'm going to do it. If you feel that you want to spend more time with the children at night, you can do that. Or if it's sometime in the evening, just after school, so you can work out your own rhythm. But here's the important thing. When we have a certain rhythm, right? You know, okay, I spent time with God, now I have my work and then children. So you know, right? Children meaning family, right? I'm spending. So when you do that, it automatically, you know, you get to this rhythm and it ensures that you avoid laziness and you avoid overworking. Right? So for example, there are a lot of tasks, a lot of projects coming in. But in your mind, you're like, okay, I know that I have my children at home. So I got to be there for them. Right? And so you make the choice. You say, okay, you plan out your work. This is one of the two. Now, yes, there will be times when, you know, the work demands are additional. You have to work extra hours to fulfill a project or an assignment that has been given to you. Right? So for example, in ministry, I've mentioned this before. You know, during Christmas time or during Easter time, you know, we do a lot of programs. So we are not able to spend more time with that children. But after that season is over, get back to your regular rhythm, right? The rhythm that you had set up on your own. Whether it's weekly rhythm, monthly rhythm, or however you feel like, right? Daily, weekly or monthly. But yours is very, very, very important. And I urge you to have this set aside. Right? Because sometimes in a bit to, you know, just, this is zeal for God. And we say, God, I want to do this. I want to do this. I want to do this. We tend to neglect our family. Spoken to many pastors, whites who have said, you know, this usually happens in rural areas as well and also in cities. But a couple of pastors, whites who said, I don't know what my husband is doing. I don't know where he is. I know he's on ministry, but I don't know where he is. Sometimes he comes, sometimes he doesn't come. And this is a very sad state. And that's not how God has called us to be. God has given us family and we must ensure that we look after them in the right way. So maintain that rhythm. Second point, be committed to what is important. Let's read, I'll remark chapter 12, 29 to 21. This is said, the first in importance is listen, Israel, the Lord your God is one. So love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy. And here is the second, love others as well as you love yourself. There is no other commandment that ranks with these. Now in order for us to maintain work, play life balance, we must be committed to what is important. We must say, okay, God, first things first, the reason I have woken up this morning, the reason I have a job, the reason I have family, the reason you bless me with children, the reason I have this home or things around me, everything that I have is because of you. The Lord your God, it is he who has given it. So you give God the first priority. Now I want to be careful because sometimes what we may say is okay, I'm giving God first priority and then second priority, family, third priority, ministry. Or first priority, God, second priority, ministry, third family. The wrong thing to say is, I will do God's work, God will look after my family. I've heard many of them say that. That's wrong because God has entrusted you with the children. So we have to look after our children. Yes, Lord is protecting, God is providing, God is looking after. He is our refuge and He is our protector. We know all of that, but God has entrusted them to us. So we must look after them. So be committed to what is important. Work is important, family is important, ministry also is important. So always look at it this way. You've got God, just picture this, you've got a circle, you've got God and in that you've got ministry and family. So it's not three separate circles. It's not first God, second family or the second ministry and third family. You've got a big circle that's God inside of that is ministry and family. So be committed to what is important. All three of them are important. But the word being committed means know that all three are important in the eyes of God. Third point, know what is important to you. Now this is something that we must determine. Intangibles, like personal work with God, family, meaningful relationships are more important than money, professional success and other accolades. Now imagine this, you've got an auto-premium, it's worked so hard and for many, many years he's toiled and he started this business and 20 years later he's extremely successful. The entire nation knows him. People call him from different countries. He's financially doing very well. But what about his family? His own family don't respect him. They say, yeah, he's good at business and making decisions and all of that. He's good in entrepreneurial skills. He's got great knowledge and all of that. But he's zero in looking after his family. We don't want to hear that. That could be a success in one thing and a failure in another thing. Now God has called us to be successful in every area. Matthew 6.33, let's see first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the other things shall be added to you. So no more is important. God you're important, work also is important, family very important. Next point, understand the true value and have a value scale. This is interesting, true value of things. There are some things that are priceless and money cannot buy it. Money is good. Money is important. It's a resource which we need to start a business to work for everything. We need money. It's a good resource. But money cannot buy a happy home. Money cannot buy meaningful relationships. Imagine we worked so hard and then 20 years later you have a 20 year old or 25 year old son and you're trying to have a relationship with the son. The son says that it's too late for us to have a relationship. You weren't there for me when I was here, when I was in school or you were not there for my sports days, my events. You don't even know what are my skills. You don't know what class I am in or what grade. You don't know my friends who are my friends. But now this man has 20 years later, his business is extremely successful. He has all the money. He can't tell his son, I'll give you one lakh a month. Come sit with me and have a talk and let's have a relationship. The son is going to say no, it's alright. Why? Because money can't buy a relationship. Money can't earn a deep and intimate relationship with God too. You can't say God, I'll give you two lakhs a month for my entire business. I'll give you two lakhs every month. Can we have a good relationship with each other? We can't say that God is not interested in that. Money cannot buy peace at rest. The peace that God gives us, money cannot buy. There are times when the richest of people will have sleepless nights because they worry about money. Or there's no rest. Will the stock market crash? Will that crash? Will my business go on? Will it stop? What if other people try to cheat me? And this whole thing of stress. But God is saying, understand the true value of things. What is more important? Is money or is relationship important? You know, I've done a lot of ministry in village areas when I was a young man, maybe about my early 20s. And these are true believers who've come to believe in the Lord Jesus from another faith. And you should see their heart. They have nothing. They just live in a tent. But they have beautiful family, a beautiful home, a joyful small house, just a mud house. Beautiful relationship between the husband and wife. Children love their parents, obedient children, working hard in the fields. Whatever they, you know, whatever crops they've earned, they all put it together. And they have a good plan. Of course, they won't be ups and downs, but they have a good relationship. Money can't buy that. So we must understand, you know, when we are going on in this life, looking for professional growth, career growth, don't forget the intangible relationship with God and the relationship with family as well. That is something money cannot buy. And many times, me personally, I've looked back and I think, oh, I wish I could have done this. I wish I could have spent a little more time with, you know, my children when they were three years, four years old, a little more time. Because I have spent, but I wish I could do some. Now they're growing up, they're not going to school and all this. But I always make it a point now to spend more time with them. And there are times I just take off and say, oh, you know, I tell the church off, so please avoid calling me for sometime unless it's, you know, a very, very big emergency, you'll feel a call. Now, sometimes in ministry, we feel, oh, that is wrong. How can we do that? It's not wrong. The balance in your life. Okay, I need to be there for my children. So sometimes I just switch off the phone. In my off days, switch it off. And I'm just there with the kids, just playing, being with them. And it's very important to do that because we're building a relationship, right? Keep important things important, right? Prioritizing family, about money, success, profession, very important. There are times where we need to make tough choices. Don't be afraid to say no, right? Don't compromise. You know, I remember this one time. There was this meeting that was scheduled. And I told the, this is a pastor from another church from a different city. They said, can you please come? I said, no, I can't come to this program. Sorry. He asked me why. I said, because my family and I, my children are very small, maybe three years old. I said, my family and I are going for a family trip. And so, so this other pastor got ready up to family trip. There are people who are dying and going through hell. And you're going for a family trip. People don't have family. People don't have money for family trips. You know, and he made me feel really guilty. I said, that's true. People are dying, going through hell and they need to move visas. And people are suffering. There's persecution all along. Family trips. I thought to myself, I was really down. I said, yeah, how can I do that? I thank God, because you know, I was praying the Lord minister to me. And he said, this is your family. And your family is more important. Than anything in this world. Take care of your family. That's basically what the police were just, you know, to take care of your family. So I had to call the pastor and say, I apologize. I won't be there for this meeting. They didn't take it the right way. But I'm glad I did that because I had a good time with my family and children. It was a good time of fellowship together. So that is more important. Than, you know, always doing the ministry. There will be times, right? Other times when people are called, we have come, right? There are times I've been away from family for two weeks. We go on, you know, Bible study, Bible colleges outside of, you know, Bangalore, different cities. We're there for two weeks or so that's all right. But what's important is the second priorities, right? Keep important things important. Set boundaries. Have those times where you switch off the phone, stop checking emails, disengage from social media. I remember this family. He's got two children, right? One is I think five and the other one is seven. And the other, what he's done is out of just love. But what he's done is he's bought two small phones. So two small phones. And so when they cry, he gives one child one phone, like regular phones, right? Android phones. And if the other one cries, give other one the phone. So all four of them have a phone. So the babies, the child is crying, you know, you take the phone. The other child, you take this phone. And so now all are happy. The husband has a phone. The wife has a phone. And the kids have a phone. And they all are sitting together in the same house. Probably, you know, nowadays what's interesting is you've got a family in the house. You've got a family WhatsApp group. And so they message each other when they're inside the house itself. And these are heights, right? And this is not about God wants, right? God is calling us to have a relationship. Set boundaries. There are times you can just switch off, have your own time or have your family time. Especially those in ministry. Switch off. It's okay. You don't have to check your emails every time. There are times when I take two days off and sometimes I take a Friday off. So I've got Friday and Saturday. And I don't check my emails. I don't check my phone. Just keep it away. Just be there with the family. Be there with the kids. Maybe go outside. Have lunch or dinner outside. Come back. Just be there available. What happens? The children will know that, hey, my parents, my father and my mother is there for me. And if there's anything, they can come and tell. Even now, you know, my son, he's six years old, he comes and tells me what happens at school. And he also tells me what he learned. And he asked me whether is it right or wrong. Because he knows that, you know, that mom will give him the right solution and we'll speak to him. So that's the kind of relationship we need to put. I'm not saying I'm the perfect parent here. But what I'm saying is we must make that effort of having a relationship with our family members, right? Again, next point, family time. Set aside time for them, right? Not just always thinking about work. Oh, I need to send this report. I need to send that report. And then we go for a family outing. We carry our laptops and go. And then in between, you know, your children and your family is in the swimming pool enjoying. And where are you? We are sitting with a laptop there. It doesn't feel like a holiday family time, right? Maybe you can take your laptops to your family picnics and all of that. But after the children have slept and after, you know, you have a long day, good day with the family, then you can probably, if you have to send reports, check your meals, you can do that, right? But you're not compromising time with family, right? Family is the most beautiful thing that we can have. Always remember, family is the most beautiful, you know, relationship that God has given us. It's a beautiful thing. Simple ways that we can, simple things that we can do in families, express love, have time not only to discipline but also have time to have fun, right? When there is a need, you be there for them, be involved in your children's studies and activities, right? Pray together as a family, beautiful. Take time for regular family vacations, attend and serve the church together as a family. You know, last week I went to one of our church members' home. They have two children, one boy and a girl. And both of them are in their early 20s, so one is 24, one is 22, and they are young guys, young people. But one thing is they are always at church. Now, their parents are working in Dubai, right? But these two children, brother and sister, they are always, every Sunday at church, right? And no matter what, they both are there at church. So recently their mother came from Dubai, and so we went and visited them here in Magno. And while we were talking, I asked Auntie, Auntie, what did you tell your children? What did you teach your children? Because you guys are in Dubai, and as children, they can avoid, you know, they can say, I slept too late, I slept late in the night so I couldn't get up in the morning, I had exams so I didn't come to church. There's so many excuses, right? Or, you know, I'm not reading too well. And another thing is they stay about 20 kilometers away from church. They catch a bus and come on. So I asked this Auntie, what did you do to your children? But even when you're not there, they have set their priorities. One of them had, you know, broken her, the daughter had broken her feet, dislocated her feet. And that morning, once she was getting ready to church, she dislocated her feet. But she's come to church that morning, and she came and told me, so I dislocated my feet, but I'm just going to go to the doctors now. So I said, why did you come? You should have taken rest at home. It's all right. She said, no, I don't, you know, church is important. So when I asked the mother, she said this, she said, as a family, from the time they were two to three years old, we would sit together, read Bible verses, pray, and then we would tell them every Sunday why it is important to go to church. And they would make the kids, even probably four or five years old, as they would make them to, you know, do something in the church, you know, clean the chairs or if there's some paper falling down, take that, take that, throw it over that dust. And that has stayed on until now, where they were not in this church. And it's wonderful. It's not only like, you know, like a routine, okay, I have to go to church, but they come, they serve the church, they truly have a great, wonderful relationship with God. And it's so wonderful. So what we do in our initial time with our children, their family, is what will last later on, right? So these are things that we must always remember. Imagine if we have, you know, all the money we buy, you know, all our children from our apartment and say, okay, this is yours, so yours. The children are not really happy with it. You know, it doesn't really matter. You know, I can work and buy my own house. What I wanted was, I wanted you. I wanted to spend time with family. I wanted to go out with my family. I wanted to go to church with my family, but I couldn't do that. We have failed in one area, but in the professional area, we've been extremely successful. The family area, we have lost it. And so very important is family time. Keep short accounts, checks and balances. March of the 6th was 15 to 32. Yes, could one of us please say that? March 6th, 30 to 32. March of the 6th was 30 to 32. Yes, anyone of us? We opposed the time and met with Jesus and told him all that had done and taught. There were so many people coming and going to the keepers and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest our way. So they started out in our boat by themselves to alone the place. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Kennedy. Now, look at this. How wonderful Jesus is teaching us something here. The apostles, Jesus had previously sent out the apostles and said, go and share about the good news. Go into, go everywhere, go to seminary, go to Judea, go wherever you go. And if they accept you, you go and bless them. If they don't shake off your dust off your feet and go. Now, the apostles have finished probably, it's not mentioned how long probably say for example, two or three week, one month of ministry at hard work. Now, we know that many of the apostles had family, right? Now, many of them Peter, it was a member of them. The others as well would have had family, probably brothers, cousins, all of them. Now, they were away from them for a month or so, all of them doing ministry. They came back to Jesus and they told Jesus, okay, Jesus, we did what you told us. We went, we did the ministry and we came back. And at that time, there were many people coming to Jesus and the disciples didn't have even time to eat. But what does Jesus say here after that? He said to them, let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while. So they started out on a boat by themselves to a lonely place. Now, the disciples didn't say, Jesus, we are tired, can we go and rest somewhere? Jesus saw them, saw that they had a tough week, tough month, hard working month. They have been fruitful, they worked hard away from family, they are tired physically, mentally as well. So Jesus says, okay, people will keep coming to them. This will never stop, but let's take time off. Let's just go away alone and be with ourselves. Now, what is it that we can learn? There will be times in our work, maybe business or workplace, ministry, where we have to put in those additional hours and work for extended periods of time. Sometimes we may be away from family for one week, two weeks, three weeks a month, or even more than a month, right? Sometimes it's business travel, sometimes it's ministry travel. So we'll have to go and never do it. We'll have to be away from family. But what is important is we have to keep an account. We need to check whether we are balancing out what we are doing. So when you return back from a long work period, especially when you've traveled or ministry, you've traveled, you've come back, balance out, very important, spend time, additional time with family, you know that two weeks you were not with them. So you need to catch up on two weeks. When I was traveling, my elder one was learning to talk. He was probably about two years old. So he was learning to talk and learning to even new toys and all of it. And it's very difficult, right? Especially when you have small children and going away for two weeks or three weeks. There was this time I went out for two weeks. Two weeks I was not there, but this day of this time where we have WhatsApp video and all of that, so that's good. You can just get in touch, but nothing like being there. Those two weeks and after I came back, I just applied for a couple of days off and I remember spending the whole time with my family. I caught up on those two weeks with the kids because they're this little, but then I asked them what are the toys you, what are the games you learned or what are the things you learned in your preschool, the daycare, what did you eat and basically you're just catching up on those two. Imagine I come back after two weeks or next day they say, pastor, can you please come for houses and pray for, and then again you're running. What's happening? You just came back from two weeks of ministry. Now again, we're running to the family who feel neglected, trying as much as possible to be available for them. Keep short checks, keep balances, see what you're doing, think about what you're doing. The mistake that I made, luckily I was not married that time, but the mistake that I made when I just became a believer was whoever called, whenever they called I would go. Whoever it is, whenever it is, or wherever it is, I would start the bike in the morning and only later on I realized that, hey, I have parents, I have brothers, I need to be available for them as well. I need to see what are their needs. I need to build a relationship with them. I know that my parents are getting older, I need to be there for them. I've got other cousins and relatives. I would miss all our family types, family reunions, I would miss all of them because somewhere in ministry I'll be. Only later on I realized that it's not wrong to say no. It's not wrong to postpone. And so keep balances, check up on your life. I love what Paul writes in Timothy. If somebody does not know how to look after his family, how will he be able to look after the house of God? It's simple. If you can't look after your own family, how will you look after the house of God? Now there are times when we are able to look after the house of God very well, but the family we don't want to look after. I think I've used this example once when this wonderful pastor of a big church, just a story, not a real story, just to prove a point. A wonderful pastor of a big church preached a wonderful sermon, came off that stage and the women of the church came to the pastor's wife and said, oh what a wonderful man of God, your husband, he did such a wonderful sermon, he preached and the Holy Spirit has spoken to me so powerfully. But the woman was visibly not impressed. So the woman asked, what's wrong? Are you not happy that your husband is a great pastor, great pioneer of the ministry? She said, yeah, I'm happy that he's doing this, but I hope that pulpit was also at home. Because the moment he gets off that pulpit and goes home, he's a completely different person. That's not how we must be. We must be the same on the pulpit and off the pulpit as well. As leaders, setting an example. Guard your resources, which is your time, energy and your money. Efficiency of the fight, 15 to 17. So be careful how you live. Do not live like ignorant people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have because these days are evil. Don't be fools then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do. Now remember that these resources, time, energy and money are given to us by God and we must avoid wasting it. Guard against things that drain your time and energy and money. Sometimes we drain our energy on the wrong things. We waste that time on the wrong things. The Lord Jesus, he was a great teacher, yet he avoided getting into meaningless debates. He did not really just want to argue. What Jesus did, he said, before Abraham, the Pharisees come there and he says, before Abraham was, I am. He said, how is it possible that Abraham was born hundreds of years ago? How can he even go to explain all of this? He said, that's the truth, what I'm telling you. Now, we're not going to believe it. I'm not going to sit and have a debate about why before Abraham was I am. He just walked away. They took stones to kill him, but he just walked away. He did not perform miracles for those who came challenging him to prove himself. Remember when Jesus was even on the cross, he said, if you are the Messiah, you get down and we will believe you. Get down from the cross, we'll believe. He didn't want to prove himself. I don't have to prove myself. Just because you're on the cross doesn't mean I'm not the Messiah. That's what I've come for. At his trial, he did not waste himself, wasted his time giving a defense. Remember Pilate, what did he say? Who are you? They're all calling you the king. Are you the king? He doesn't respond. Tell me who are you? He doesn't respond. Again, to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they're saying, tell us who you are. Are you the Messiah? He doesn't want to give a defense. It was a meaningless defense. Sometimes there are things that are called energy leaks. That is what we don't mind our own business. Getting involved in things that others are doing. It becomes an energy leak in our life. Let's look at it in the corporate sector. You've got a big task ahead. You've got a project assignment. You're doing that. You've got long workouts. You've got to work. You've got family, you've got to go home. You've got a wife and your children waiting there. You've got to spend time with them as well. You know it's a long day. You reach office, you begin your work. Now imagine, during the break time, instead of taking time and resting your mind, resting your eyes and all of that, you begin to talk to your friends and say, hey, you know what happened to this family? What happened to his house? What happened to this guy's car? What happened? We're talking all about other things. What is happening? We're not minding our own business. We're only wasting our energy. It's not going to help us at all. What about ministry? We know we've got a long day. We've got people to visit. We need to be spiritually strong. We go to a house visit and then they're talking about, you know, the reason for the house visit is to pray and to spend time together and fellowship together. But then if you go to a house and then they're talking about this faster, they're talking about what happened 10 years back and then you're sitting and listening to that and then you get involved. It's all energy leaks. Many a times I've gone to house visits and I've, you know, especially the older folks, they start talking about what happened 10 years back, 15 years back, how the churches were. So I tell them, is it okay if we don't worry about all that? Let's just, you know, study the word, pray, look at what we can do as a church right now. And sometimes older people, they like to talk and talk. So it's all right. They may feel bad, it's all right. You tell them as a leader, these are things we must do. We must not waste our energy. Overreacting to situations, distractions, like social media, browsing, text, these are all additional distractions. Now social media, for those of us who are working in that field, they have to go. But then you take time off, right? You don't have to always, you know, you've got a ten minute break. It's not like you have to go on Facebook and see who has liked your picture or Instagram and see who has posted what. Sometimes you just need to rest. Don't worry about that. There will come a time you can see all of those things. So these become distractions. It becomes an energy leak. Spending time gossiping with colleagues. This is a big energy leak. Gossiping will only cause us to become weak. Our mouth will pain, our head will pain. Why? Because we're only thinking about others and what they are doing and their failures. Over-crowding your life with unnecessary activities and activity that has not been delegated or activities that can be delegated to others. Now let me give you this example. When we started church, we were about 8 to 10 people. So as a leader, I had to do everything. I would come, I would open the church, I would set up the cables, I would connect the instruments. Then I would, you know, just briefly, just roughly wipe up the chairs. I would switch on the laptop for the PPT, add the songs and put in the announcements. Have the PPT ready. Then, you know, if it was convenience Sunday, I would, you know, put the wafers with the launch table, the elements ready, keep it all on the table, you know, put the room freshener in and make sure the speakers are working. Do everything. Now we were 10 people. But as we began to grow, right, I realized, I began to delegate. I saw, okay, some youth are there, they are regular. So I said, okay, you look after the media team. So PPT opening, you know, opening the lyrics, doing all that is your responsibility. I said, I gave few of our trusted church members the key church team. I said, okay, your responsibility is to open the church, set up the chairs, put the room freshener. So I began to feel a little more free on Sundays in the sense that I know that I have to come. So my mind is not crowded. Okay, I have to do this, I have to do this. I know I'm going to get up, okay. This person is going to open the church. PPT is going to be ready. Song lyrics are going to be ready. All I need to do is go begin with the prayer and then begin the worship. And the same thing with our workplace. If there are things that we can delegate, small responsibility is delegate. It's all right. I don't overcrowd your life. So what is important is we must stay focused, stay in the center of God's plan. And I do not take on things that God does not want you to be doing. I remember this. I've closed with this example, right. There's this one man, young man. And he was, you know, he's doing his engineering and all that. And he was, you know, studying really hard and all that. And he came up to me and he said, I'm very stressed and very tired. So it wasn't a matter of why, you know, why aren't you sleeping? Are you going to get sleep at night? I said, no, I just feel stressed all the time. Even after waking up in the morning and feel like I'm so tired, like I haven't slept. I said, okay, you pray. God is the one who gives us good sleep, good rest. And that's very important. Then later on, he told me that he started, you know, investing in these bitcoins on, you know, on the phone where you can, I have no idea what those things are, but they invest on certain shares and, you know, they keep checking all of it. And then I told him, is this really necessary as a student? You know, you've got your studies, which is plenty enough. And now you're stressing yourself out, whether the share market is up or down and all that. That's why you're not able to sleep at night. Delete that app, take back your money, and just concentrate on your studies because this is wasting your time. And, you know, that was the situation that I gave him. But, you know, sometimes now we do things that is not what, you know, God does not want to do it. And then we work out our life and we get stressed out. So, important. Know that work and family, God, they're all equal in the eyes of God. Everything is important, right? But, we've come a time is up. So, this is quickly closed in prayer. Avinas, can you please close in prayer for us? Yeah, it's your pastor. Yeah. So let's pray. Our grace is heavenly, Father. We thank you for this beautiful time. We thank you for the time of learning, Father God. Thank you, Father God, that you are equipping us, Father God, for the ministry, Lord. Thank you, Father God, that you are giving us the deep insights, Father God, that what the says about our life, Father God, what says the family, what says the business, Father God, and what says the money and time, Lord Jesus. Father God, as we are growing, Father God, as we are learning, Lord Jesus, help us to, Father God, not just hear, Father God, but help us to do it, also, Father God. We pray that, Lord Jesus, Father God, that your grace is enough for us. We know, Father God, and as we, Lord Jesus, spending time in your presence, Father God, we ask you, Father God, lead us and guide us with your Holy Spirit, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We submit, Pastor, to your mighty hand. We submit all the students to your mighty hand, Jesus, and we ask this prayer in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. God bless you. Amen. Thank you, Avinas. Thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful week ahead. Catch up next week. God bless you all.